Categories for News

Sep 24

2020

No more name tags for Buffalo cops

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Concerned with officer safety following an uptick in online harassment, Buffalo Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood is no longer requiring Buffalo cops to display name tags on their uniforms. Many officers had been ignoring the previous edict requiring officers to display their name tags on their outermost garments since anti-racism protests began in late May. Members of the public, including demonstrators, have said the absence of name tags makes it impossible to identify officers engaged in misconduct.   According to Captain Jeffrey Rinaldo, the department’s spokesman, the policy was altered last Friday after more than a dozen police officers were doxed —[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Sep 3

2020

Buffalo cop under investigation after scuffle 

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A twice-suspended Buffalo police officer is under investigation by Internal Affairs after he was caught on camera Thursday afternoon punching a man on Elmwood Avenue.  The officer, Richard Hy, was off-duty at the time and dressed in camouflage. He’s white, the man he punched was black, someone described by police and witnesses as displaying mental distress and violent behavior. The video was posted to Facebook and later deleted. The poster, Abu Pablo, wrote: “Person in military fatigues assaults mentally deranged man while I sip coffee.” Another witness told Investigative Post the video does not tell the full story.  “This wasn’t[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Sep 2

2020

North Buffalo bar closes following ugly behavior

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Racist taunts from patrons of a Hertel Avenue bar have led to its temporary closure due to violations of COVID regulations and a city employee being suspended for mooning demonstrators. Marchers demanding police reform and racial equality clashed with M.T. Pockets bar patrons Tuesday night, as the patrons hurled vile taunts and phrases, including the n-word, toward protestors.  “You’re killing my business,” Philip Alagna, the bar’s owner, shouted from the patio as tensions escalated between the bar’s patrons and protesters, who had returned to the scene of an ugly incident Friday evening.  Alagna is well known in Democratic politics and[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Aug 18

2020

Study: Buffalo finances among worst in US

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Only one city in the country is suffering more than Buffalo from the financial devastation of the COVID crisis. And that’s Rochester, just an hour down the Thruway. A forthcoming study, the source of a New York Times analysis published Monday, projects Buffalo’s government is staring at a 15 to 20 percent shortfall in revenue in the current fiscal year — more than twice the average in the survey of 150 cities nationwide. Upstate New York’s largest cities — Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse — were ranked the most fiscally distressed municipalities in the nation. New York City ranked fifth, right[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Aug 10

2020

Jail guard suspended after confrontation

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An Erie County Sheriff’s Office employee has been placed on administrative leave after being caught on camera menacing Black Lives Matter protesters with a baseball bat during a march Saturday evening in South Buffalo. A video shared more than 300 times on Facebook shows a man wearing an “All Lives Matter” t-shirt climbing out of his pickup truck, then cursing and approaching protesters waving an aluminum bat. An estimated 100 to 150 protesters were marching near Mount Mercy Academy.  Commenters on the post identified the man as a corrections officer with the Erie County Sheriff’s Office who was off-duty at[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jul 27

2020

Impact of Investigative Post reporting

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Lawmakers have responded to stories published last year by Investigative Post on the heavy-handed way the state and City of Buffalo enforced traffic laws and punished drivers who failed to pay fines. In February 2019, Marsha McLeod reported that the city, in an effort to generate revenue, was aggressively enforcing traffic laws and had imposed 13 new fees and fines that drove up the cost of paying off their tickets.  (Investigative Post readers subsequently selected the report as the best story of 2019.) In it, McLeod wrote: The city’s strategy is costing drivers a lot of money, and, in some[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jul 24

2020

Judge bars release of cop disciplinary records

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Updated: 9:21 p.m. A state Supreme Court judge has at least temporarily blocked the release of most disciplinary records of Buffalo police officers.  Judge Frank A. Sedita III, responding to a complaint from the Police Benevolent Association and Buffalo Professional Firefighters Association, issued a show cause order Friday afternoon that prohibits the release of most disciplinary records until a hearing scheduled for Aug. 26. The police department has received several dozen requests under the Freedom of Information Law for disciplinary records since the state repealed 50-a, a state law that shielded from public disclosure the personnel and disciplinary records of[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jul 23

2020

A critical voice on OTB board?

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The Erie County Legislature has appointed a prolific Democratic donor as its representative to the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp.  Francis Warthling was approved in a unanimous vote Thursday to replace Beverly Mazur, who served in the role for ten years. His appointment follows nearly 18 months of controversy at OTB, including ongoing federal and state investigations.  Despite allegations of wrongdoing, no OTB board members have questioned CEO Henry Wojtaszek during meetings or otherwise criticized operations publicly. That is part of the reason the Legislature chose to replace Mazur, a former Conservative Party official with Republican ties. Warthling said he[...]

Posted 5 years ago
Investigative Post